“Would you like to understand some of the reasons that I do not desire for you to attempt to plan your own future, but rely on Me to plan your steps? There is purpose in My asking you to focus on this day, and not look to tomorrow for your need, or happiness, or fulfillment of My plan for you. You know nothing of tomorrow. With your limited sight, you have no idea what tomorrow may bring; and, for that matter, even if I have a tomorrow planned for you. I have given you a task to pursue; I ask you to surrender to the life of Jesus. What are you waiting for? I have called you to a mission. I want you to bear My message of reconciliation.
"When will you make My desire your goal, instead of presuming upon a tomorrow that you may not have, or a tomorrow that the one who needs to hear may not have? How can you be so arrogant? In your foolish pride, you have put off all My callings, saying that you will serve Me with all of your heart another day. So many days have gone by that you have set aside the importance of My calling in your life. It has been dulled within you, all because you have thought that you have many tomorrows to do what I ask you to do today. You must change now. Today is the only day that I have in My hand for you. Today, you must respond to My will for you. Tomorrow may change everything.”
Proverbs 27:1 NIV
Do not boast about tomorrow for you do not know what a day may bring forth.
James 4:13-15 NIV
13) Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’
14) Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
15) Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.
One day, a very bright, much loved young man was killed while trying to break up a fight between two members of his high school. He died almost instantly. One of the comments in the local paper read like this.
“He just stepped in and tried to break up a fight. He was an innocent bystander in all of this. He was a quiet, good kid. He mentioned last week to his grandmother he wanted to get saved and get back to church. He was heading in the right direction…”
This young man’s tomorrow never came. Instantly, his life was gone. I wonder if anyone thought that he or she had another day to talk to him about the Lord the day he was killed. Last week he mentioned that he wanted to “get saved” in a week that never came for him.
What has the Lord given you to do? I don’t mean, how long is your laundry list? What is your reason for breathing today, according to your Lord? Are you anointed to talk to someone about the Lord, ask someone for forgiveness, or simply tell others that you love them? Is it time for you to lay aside your pet sins or your critical spirit so that someone gets a better picture of Jesus? What has the Holy Spirit been talking to you about? Are you going to be obedient to do it?
Each of us needs to repent of what we have not done the many yesterdays in our lives, and be obedient to our life in Christ today. Every one of us is very much needed in our personal world. We need to begin to count every encounter, every word spoken to others, every action of every moment, very important. It is to God. He has given every one of us a defined number of moments that are designated as our lives. How are we going to use them and make them count? Will each of them glorify the Lord and fulfill His plan? What an eternal shame if they don’t.
Today, the first thing that I need to do is tell you that Jesus loves you and that you are valuable!
Jim Corbett
